Liquid Adventures Kayak School

I learned to paddle a kayaking in white water with Liquid Adventures and can’t think of learning this sport anywhere else. The school offers classes for every range of ability from beginner through intermediate and even advanced. The instructors are first rate and very friendly. They even have a national team member teach the slalom classes, and you can find the owner, DC kayaking legend Tom McEwan, teaching classes and leading trips to Mexico and Canada for all abilities.
If you think white water paddling is for you, I can’t think of a better school to teach you the ropes. Best of all, while most other schools in the DC area offer only beginner classes, Liquid Adventures offers classes for all ranges of abilities from beginner to advanced. In fact, I still paddle their Cheat river training programs in the Spring of each year, and will have them teach my kids how to paddle come summer.
In short, I would recommend Liquid Adventures kayaking school without reservation to anyone who wants to learn how to paddle a kayak or wants to refine their skills on the water.

I highly recommend LAKS to anyone in the area looking for kayak instruction– beginner on up! Ashley will assist you in scheduling and placing you in the right class and is always so helpful. Instructors are all great. As with anything, the instructors all have their own style, but they are all knowledgeable and are in it because they love the sport and want to share.

Tom McEwan, Ashley McEwan, and the Liquid Adventures Kayak School (LAKS) team are fantastic people and outstanding instructors.
On Father’s Day last year, my kids and I signed up for an introductory private lesson. Tom is a legend in the whitewater kayaking world, so we were excited that he came out to guide us that day. My kids had both spent significant time in kayaks at their summer camps, but Tom took the time to get us properly outfitted in his boats, and then review basic principles on land before we got in the water. Once in the water, we reviewed several basic safety issues, how to give each other bow rescues if we flipped over, and how to exit the boat if needed. Then off we went! Tom guided us into some gentle moving water, and took us into progressively bigger rapids as our comfort level increased. At one point, my 9 year old daughter flipped over — which of course happens routinely — and she calmly waited, upside down, for Tom to quickly paddle over and give her a bow rescue. It was awesome that she didn’t panic and stayed in her boat.
Since then, we’ve really gotten to know LAKS. My 13 year old son has become an excellent kayaker through Tom’s after-​school program, where LAKS picks kids up from local middle/​high schools and takes them out to the river. It is a super program, that he has thoroughly enjoyed. Both of my kids also spent the winter practicing their rolling techniques in the pool with the LAKS instructors, and are now fully confident in big whitewater with bombproof rolls.
This summer, Tom invited my son to start more intense training with him out at the Mirant Power Plant in Dickerson, MD, where they have a man-​made whitewater course. Those workouts have dramatically improved his skills, and his muscles are happily sore for 2 days. Next week, he will participate in the LAKS’ summer camp: kayaking out on the river all day, plus an overnight trip where they’ll camp out and cook dinner over the fire. (I want to go!)
While we haven’t joined one yet, LAKS runs kayaking trips to Mexico, Canada, and elsewhere. We hope to do one soon!
So, if you want to learn to kayak, or want to take a kayaking trip, give Tom and Ashley a call!